Making devardi glass less shocky

[uncle louie]

I have a crockpot full of annealing bubbles from artco and i set it on high for the beads and when i use devardi rods i stick them in there and it works pretty damm good. i've only had to baby a couple of colors (mainly opaques)

[dmmcnair]

I wonder if you actually run a fusing schedule on the rods if that would help. Because then you would actually melt the whole rod, squeeze the bubbles out, and anneal. They actually have forms to make rods in the kiln. Hmmm. I may have to try this, cause its the bubbles and the odd sizes that really cause the shockiness right? Or at least most of the shockiness?

[Lyssa]

Who has forms to make rods in the kiln. Me want!

Originally Posted by dmmcnair

I wonder if you actually run a fusing schedule on the rods if that would help. Because then you would actually melt the whole rod, squeeze the bubbles out, and anneal. They actually have forms to make rods in the kiln. Hmmm. I may have to try this, cause its the bubbles and the odd sizes that really cause the shockiness right? Or at least most of the shockiness?

[jamie lynne]

That might work, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through if you have pounds of glass to "fix".

Originally Posted by dmmcnair

I wonder if you actually run a fusing schedule on the rods if that would help. Because then you would actually melt the whole rod, squeeze the bubbles out, and anneal. They actually have forms to make rods in the kiln. Hmmm. I may have to try this, cause its the bubbles and the odd sizes that really cause the shockiness right? Or at least most of the shockiness?

[tammydownunder]

Originally Posted by dmmcnair

I wonder if you actually run a fusing schedule on the rods if that would help. Because then you would actually melt the whole rod, squeeze the bubbles out, and anneal. They actually have forms to make rods in the kiln. Hmmm. I may have to try this, cause its the bubbles and the odd sizes that really cause the shockiness right? Or at least most of the shockiness?

Totally false economy.

Cost of the forms
Electricity cost of running kiln

Just throw the crappy glass out and get some decent glass. The vendors have sales that make the glass nearly the same price as the shocky glass.

[Lyssa]

Ok, I personally want the rod forms for making rods out of bottle glass - anyone know where I can get the forms?

[EchoTantuli]

I love the brown and olive opaque from Devardi. I just cut into 1" pieces and toss them in the kiln before I work. They are nice and toasty and you can pull them into thick stringer for base beads or whatever. I just can't see having more equipment running...seems like already to much electricity we use in the studio to me.

[Role]

Originally Posted by Lyssa

Ok, I personally want the rod forms for making rods out of bottle glass - anyone know where I can get the forms?

Unfortunately, gravity will not allow you to make a round rod
in the kiln.

(Well, you could, but it would take a tall kiln and a really specialized
mold.)

You can take a piece of corrugated steel and put glass in the
corrugations which, depending on the shape of the steel, will
form a sort-of rod, like a flatish strip.

A Murrine mold, depending on shape, would work too.

The power to run the kiln will make it some very expensive
glass.

[uncle louie]

rather than waste time and electricity just do like the devardi videos and preheat the rods. they do have some nice colors but you just have to be patient with their shockiness.

[Lyssa]

Originally Posted by Role

Unfortunately, gravity will not allow you to make a round rod
in the kiln.

(Well, you could, but it would take a tall kiln and a really specialized
mold.)

You can take a piece of corrugated steel and put glass in the
corrugations which, depending on the shape of the steel, will
form a sort-of rod, like a flatish strip.

A Murrine mold, depending on shape, would work too.

The power to run the kiln will make it some very expensive
glass.

I wanted to make my own rods out of champagne bottle glass... I'm having difficulty keeping the uneven sized and shaped broken chunks from flying into pieces when i introduce them into the flame, even if they've been pre-heated.

[Molly Bird]

I've had pretty good luck with Devardi glass. Some of it is just too shocky and I'm too impatient to heat it slowly. I've used propylene and oxygen & gotten very true colors with the lipstick pink but I'm using propane now & it turns a pale lavender. I love Devardi glass for pulling stringers & twisties. It's the bomb.

[KJohn]

Devardi makes great stringers, I've heard that about their metallic blacks too, even if they don't keep their reduction when annealed.

I'm on a hot head as well, how are you finding the colors for the semi-opaques? Do they stay true or change with fuels?

------------------
Kristin ~

[AmorphousDesigns]

I found with the 2 rods of Devardi I got for free:

annealling doesn't help as it appears to have a line or two of air running through the length of the rods

pre-heating as much as possible in the kiln and then pulling into stringers is effective, but requires prior planning and something else to do while waiting, plus making a base bead from stringers is a PITA

even with babying the glass it still is pretty shocky and I have a couple of tiny burns from it

I personally would not buy it when there is so many other nice glass that is not such a PITA. But for me this is a hobby and I can understand the business economics of using less expensive material if you can still make a great bead to sell and don't mind the fussiness of the glass.

[Molly Bird]

Originally Posted by KJohn

Devardi makes great stringers, I've heard that about their metallic blacks too, even if they don't keep their reduction when annealed.

I'm on a hot head as well, how are you finding the colors for the semi-opaques? Do they stay true or change with fuels?

------------------
Kristin ~

I started on a hot head & I had good luck with the semi-opaques. They do tend to burn easily & aren't as shocky as the transparents. Actually Devardi works better with a hot head because (obviously) the HH doesn't burn as hot as a oxygen/propane mixture. Now I just try to be patient, turn my torch down low & don't have issues. The silver black does hold the color when annealed. It's more of a gun-metal silver than bright & shiney. Their salmon is just beautiful. I like the transparent rose, light green & marine green, blue green, indian marbled glass...I've used a lot of them. I started buying Devardi when I was learning to lampwork because it was cheap & kept buying it because of the colors. Honestly, the only color I've used that changes with fuel is the lipstick pink & I'm going to switch to propylene when I make those from now on. Hope that helps.

[dmmcnair]

I garage my stuff anyway. And I do fuse too, so I don't see it as much of a waste considering the amount of Devardi I have. It's actually the murrini mold. I found them at
http://www.armstrongglass.com/prodde...hp?prod=SSM021

They can probably be found somewhere else. There are several colors of Devardi that I love, but are too shocky and I haven't found similar with another company. The mold is only $25. Not like some of the plate or bowl molds. And they won't exactly be round, but square/roundish, which is fine, considering the shapes that devardi comes in anyway, and you could probably break the huge rods to make something skinnier. I think I will have to try this when payday rolls around. Plus if the kiln is big enough you could use furniture to stack two or three kiln shelves and do up two molds or more depending on which kiln you have. I have a fusing kiln, not anything with a bead door. So this is doable for me.

[KJohn]

That does help, thanks. The colors are so appealing...nice to find a way to make this work. I've looked at murrine molds for other things, but for rods...can you use folded or supported kiln paper?

[dmmcnair]

I don't see why not. As long as it's supported. I've done that for shaping pendants. But it would have to be supported by something heavy, or the glass will move under or over where you actually want it.

http://www.fusionheadquarters.com/product_p/murmol.htm Another place to find the murrini mold.